I Fell In Love With Your Crooked Teeth the Moment I Laid Eyes On Them

The closest I’ve ever come to feeling like a true-blue celebrity happened today when I arrived at work. My arrival coincided with the arrival of (most of) my 2nd period class. “Fast, teacher, fast!,” they shouted as they held the elevator door open for me as I quickly tried to lock up my bicycle. I can only hope they didn’t take it as an insult when I then declined the elevator ride and opted for five flights of stairs.

Interacting with them daily, believe me when I say none of them would understand the explanation behind my refusal to dog-pile into a tiny, cramped space with five of my students. “Sorry kids, but teacher could be arrested for that in his home country,” is above their level. And the tone of fear and foreboding would be unrecognizable to them. They trust and respect teachers over here!

I haven’t mentioned it yet, but one of my students totally has a Dick Tracy watch. It looks unassuming enough (unlike, say, Tracy’s own watch), a little cube with an otherwise blank screen. But it went off in class today; forcing him to tell whoever was calling that he was in class. All while sweating bullets because a.) they’re not supposed to have their phones with them in class, and b.) they’re certainly not supposed to be speaking Korean in class.

Now while I know that smart watches aren’t anything new anymore, I didn’t expect to see smart watches created for and geared to 8 year-olds. That is new.